My 9 year old son told peers he wanted to kill himself

I'm the mother of an 8 year old daughter and 9 year old son. Their father and i are divorced and are gearing up for a custody battle later this month, although we try not to discuss anything around the kids. My son has had a myriad of physical and mentalhealth issues since he was born prematurely, including ADHD, and does take medication for the hyperactivity.On Friday, September 30th, i went to his school to watch the kids at their fall race, when the principal and VP pulled me in to the office. That morning, a couple of students from my kids' bus informed the office staff about my son making statements about taking his own life with a gun. Upon questioning, my son told the staff that he's had these thoughts for 2 years, he planned to do it with his father's gun (which is supposedly locked up and away, ammo in a different location), and it was due to kids being mean. Obviously, i was floored upon hearing this because a) i didn't think this would be coming up at the age of 9 and b) i didn't think he was internally suffering, especially to the point of wanting to end his life.When I talked to him about it, he said these boys keep calling him weak (physically), he knows weak means useless, and he has no friends. I can't even write that last part without sobbing. Both his father, his step-mother, my boyfriend, and myself have talked to him and his reasons remain the same. I'm already taking the necessary steps as far as setting up an appointment with a psychologist, working with the school about the bullies, ect. I just wanted to reach out to the parents of Reddit to see if any of you had experience with your kids regarding this and if so, how did you handle it? via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2d5A5Cd